00:00Will there be water in our homes, factories and fields if the climate changes?
00:09Water knows no borders, but neither does drought.
00:16So can we learn from our neighbors?
00:18The European Union has made water a priority, both at home and in its diplomacy.
00:24We take you to Jordan, one of the most water-scarce countries in the world.
00:34In Jordan, freshwater reserves are running out, both below and above ground.
00:38Now each person has barely 61 cubic meters of available water per year, compared with
00:42an average of 4,000 in the European Union.
00:50Flooding waves of Palestinian, Iraqi and more recently Syrian refugees in this stable
00:54kingdom have put pressure on the resource.
00:57In the Jordan Valley, this new drinking water plant was built to tackle the crisis facing
01:02the north of the country.
01:04500,000 Syrian refugees come to the north of Jordan, so that's why the project comes
01:11to supply and improve the water quantity in the north of Jordan.
01:17This is one of the many projects co-financed by European cooperation.
01:22Inej works for the German Development Bank, KfW, and Guillaume for its French equivalent,
01:27AFD.
01:28Here, the AFD co-financed the plant together with the European Union and the European Investment
01:32Bank, while KfW is participating in the rehabilitation of its source, the King Abdullah Canal, one
01:38of the country's only watercourses.
01:42You might see there's a lot of cracks in Jordan, over all Jordan.
01:45The water losses are at 50% because of technical losses or because of administrative losses.
01:53They are not being counted, they are not being paid for.
01:56We and other development partners support Jordan in reducing the water losses to a more
02:01moderate level.
02:16Altogether, this is our biggest portfolio globally in the water sector, amounting to
02:231.3 billion euros, partly concessional loans, partly grant financing, with the support of
02:30the German government.
02:32European cooperation is also funding improvements to water transport and storage in the country's
02:49second largest city, and work on six water treatment plants so that they can offer treated
02:54water to farmers.
03:01We head for the capital, where Europe is supporting a mega-project that is vital to
03:04the country's development.
03:10One of the world's largest desalination plants is to be built in Aqaba in the far south.
03:15The water will be pumped 450 kilometres from the Red Sea to Amman.
03:21A lot of energy will be involved in this project, especially we are talking about going from
03:25zero level with the sea level, all the way up to Amman, plus 1,200.
03:31If this project did not work out, the share of water would drop down to 30 metre cube
03:36per capita, meaning only water for drinking, not for agriculture, not for industrial, not
03:42for anything.
03:43From the European community, we got huge support, technical-wise, financial-wise, hopefully
03:49we will do it.
03:53The cost is estimated at over €4 billion.
03:56A French consortium won the tender.
03:58The EU is one of the top donors, with almost €100 million in grants, combined with at
04:02least €300 million in loans from the European Investment Bank.
04:06We see in practice on a daily basis how people can invent, re-invent, make the best possible
04:13use of scarce resources.
04:15And the southern part of our continent, in Europe, is going to be exposed to this challenge
04:20as well in the coming years, and it's a source of inspiration.
04:26This year, the European Commission will be presenting its own water resilience strategy,
04:30aimed at ensuring that everyone has a clean and sufficient water supply.
04:34Less than an hour's flight later, we're now in Cyprus.
04:50Like Jordan, Cyprus has no choice but to filter seawater.
04:53It has five desalination plants and plans to build ten more.
04:59The country is also pioneering a less energy-intensive and more circular practice, wastewater reuse.
05:05This treatment plant is equipped with a technological innovation called membrane reactors.
05:11These type of treatment plants are very compact, very small footprint.
05:18The clean water passes through the membranes, organic sludge stays in the tank, and that
05:24can be used for energy generation.
05:28A European regulation defines the quality requirements for this reclaimed water.
05:32It's water without phosphorus, nitrogen, very low solids, and it's perfect for irrigation.
05:42It's not drinkable, though?
05:44It's not drinkable, but with some additional filtration, you can make it potable water.
05:54This so-called tertiary treatment is set to be installed in all the continent's major
05:58water treatment plants.
06:00This basin will gradually be emptied when the rain will fail, to irrigate neighboring
06:05plots, safeguarding the island's food sovereignty.
06:10Cidari, criptari, citaroboula, very nice boat.
06:15If we didn't have water, we would need to buy or import food for the eagles from Europe.
06:28Water is also vital to Cyprus' hotels, which welcomes some 4 million tourists every year.
06:35We do everything we can, even if it's small water-saving techniques, like changing our
06:39faucets and our taps, having sensors.
06:43All of this green grass is all done with recycled water.
06:46A new European directive aims to maximize these practices and even promote additional
06:53wastewater treatments.
06:56The next step will be to eliminate micropollutants, such as those found in medicines and cosmetics.
07:02Thank you, doctor.
07:05This lab at the University of Cyprus is world-famous in its fields.
07:09The problem of micropollutants is quite complex, because there are so many of them.
07:13And as soon as we learn something about some of them, new ones pop up.
07:19We have to find solutions, because we have to promote wastewater reuse.
07:23The European Union is pioneering now this field.
07:27The implementation of all this new legislation will drive technology.
07:32So, knowledge is driving policy, and policy is driving technological progress.
07:39We finish with a children's book recommendation, signed by the scientists.
07:42The Secret Handbook of the Blue Circle, which is also available in English.
07:53See you soon, on the roads to green.
07:57www.cyprus.eu
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